After Joining a Dating Show With My Straight Male Childhood Friend

Huo Qing, the youngest actor in the entertainment industry to win all three major acting awards, has had a problem lately.

His childhood best friend, the brilliant new director Lin Songmian, has confessed his feelings for him.

His buddy, the one who'd grown up sharing every pair of pants with him, wanted to sleep with him. Huo Qing couldn't understand it.

He considered himself so straight he could never bend.

*

Although he turned Lin Songmian down, Huo Qing didn't think much of it. If they couldn't be lovers, they could keep being friends. Wouldn't it be fine to go on just like before?

They could eat and live together. He could wake Lin Songmian up every morning and coax him to sleep every night.

But Lin Songmian stopped paying attention to him.

Because of a contract, the two of them ended up on the same dating show. Lin Songmian wouldn't hold his hand or talk to him, and the rare times he looked at Huo Qing, his eyes were full of sorrow.

Realizing his friend was suffering from heartbreak, Huo Qing was overcome with guilt. His heart bled for him, and every day he prayed to the moon that Lin Songmian would get over it soon and go back to being his good, straight buddy, someone he could kiss, cuddle, and hug whenever he wanted.

*

Feeling terribly guilty toward his friend, Huo Qing got drunk late one night and came across an anonymous question from a netizen.

[Hi, everyone. I fell for my childhood friend, but he's straight and turned me down. What should I do?]

For some strange reason, Huo Qing felt an overwhelming sympathy for this stranger he'd never met.

He added the person as a friend and drew up a careful plan to help them get over their heartbreak.

The plan went remarkably well. Before long, the netizen was a new person, and the two of them prepared to delete each other as agreed.

In their final conversation before deleting each other, Huo Qing asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time.

[Can I ask you something? Why did you fall for him?]

[Netizen: Ah, to be honest, I always thought he liked me too.]

[Netizen: He'd sneak a kiss while I was asleep, and whenever I laughed, he couldn't help ruffling my hair.]

[Netizen: When he stood onstage, no matter how many people were between us, I was always the only one in his line of sight.]

[Netizen: Maybe he gave me too many false hopes, or maybe I was seeing him through rose-colored glasses... Whatever, none of that matters now. I've moved on.]

It's easier to see things from the outside. Huo Qing, on the other side of the screen, slammed the table and shouted, "Moved on, my ass! That bastard is fucking in love with you!"

Then he froze completely.

He'd done all those things to Lin Songmian too...?

So was he actually straight or not?

Huo Qing was deeply confused.

The next morning, the dating show's contestants began choosing the people they were interested in. Huo Qing, whose sexuality had been thoroughly shaken, gazed at Lin Songmian with hopeful eyes.

But right under Huo Qing's eager gaze, Lin Songmian walked straight past him.

#As he walked, he silently repeated the slogans his netizen friend had taught him to cut off his feelings and renounce love: He's a jerk! He has no taste! The wise stay out of love! Fools make the same mistakes again!

#So, which of the four handsome guys should he pick?

#Anyone but Huo Qing.

Premise: Better to shatter than to bend.